Spate of attacks [ON AMERICANS] raises Arab terrorism fears *WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO*

Times Online ^ | November 22, 2002 | Richard Beeston

[twas]

The body of Bonnie Witheral, an American nurse who was shot dead by an unknown gunman at a clinic in Sidon

AMERICANS came under attack across the Middle East yesterday, prompting fears of a new wave of terrorist strikes at vulnerable Western targets in the Arab world. An American nurse was killed by a gunman in Lebanon. Two US soldiers were shot and injured in Kuwait by a fugitive policeman. In Saudi Arabia a gunman burst into a McDonald’s restaurant and set it alight.

US officials are investigating whether the incidents were isolated attacks or part of a coordinated campaign. Hours before the latest violence, the US State Department had issued a warning to American citizens abroad that Osama bin Laden was preparing fresh attacks against them.

Last week he appeared to claim credit for a wave of recent terrorist strikes from the bombing in Bali to an attack at sea on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen.

Whether orchestrated or not, the impact of the latest violence will be much the same: to sow fear among American and other Western expatriates living in the region.

The deadliest attack was in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, where Bonnie Witheral, 31, anassistant nurse married to Gary Witheral from Crawley in West Sussex, was found lying in a pool of blood at the clinic where she worked. She had been shot three times in the head.

She worked for the Christian Missionary Alliance, which runs a school and a health clinic and serves mainly Palestinians from the nearby Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp.

According to local reports, the church had received a series of threats by extremists warning it to close its mission and leave.

Mrs Witheral’s murder is the first attack on an American citizen in Lebanon since a spate of kidnappings and killings of Westerners during the civil war, which ended a decade ago. Various militant Palestinian and Lebanese Sunni Muslim groups are active in the area and one is linked to the al-Qaeda network. Earlier this week Vincent Battle, the US Ambassador to Beirut, cancelled a visit to the city after protests from religious leaders.

A second manhunt started in Kuwait after two American soldiers were shot and injured by a traffic policeman on a motorway south of the capital.

Kuwaiti sources said that the soldiers, based at the sprawling US military Camp Doha, were in civilian clothes and travelling in an unmarked car when they were flagged down by the Kuwaiti officer near the town of Oraifijan. One was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder before the policemen fled across the border into Saudi Arabia.

US officials, mindful of the dangers posed to Western troops as they mass in Kuwait and other Gulf states in preparation for an invasion of Iraq, played down the incident.

“There have been terrorist attacks in that region for my entire adult lifetime, and that is a long time,” Donald Rumsfeld, 70, the US Defence Secretary, said.

The Pentagon now has about 50,000 troops in the area. Although they are usually confined to their bases in the Gulf or kept out of sight on board ships, the larger the force becomes the more vulnerable it will be to terrorist attacks from local groups.

Saudi Arabia, where support for bin Laden is thought to be strongest, said that it would crack down on violence after an arson attack against a McDonald’s near the Prince Sultan airbase, where 4,500 US troops are stationed.

A gunman walked into the restaurant on Wednesday and doused the building with petrol before setting it alight.

“We will fight this act with all our power and bring it under control,” Prince Nayef, the Interior Minister, said. “Punishment will be severe.”

[spycatcher]

Why does the media show have no qualms showing graphic dead Palestinians and Israelis, but not dead Americans like this?

[spycatcher]

show

[Jakarta ex-pat]

My guess is Bonnie is a LIBERAL.

Just because she is a liberal gives nobody the right to kill her.

However, better me or mine. (I don't care whether that sounds callous).

[ApesForEvolution]

"She worked for the Christian Missionary Alliance, which runs a school and a health clinic and serves mainly Palestinians from the nearby Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp."

An interesting contrast. Christians go to the M.E. and help; islamotrash come to the west and use planes as cruise missiles.

"Mrs Witheral’s murder is the first attack on an American citizen in Lebanon since a spate of kidnappings and killings of Westerners during the civil war, which ended a decade ago. Various militant Palestinian and Lebanese Sunni Muslim groups are active in the area and one is linked to the al-Qaeda network. Earlier this week Vincent Battle, the US Ambassador to Beirut, cancelled a visit to the city after protests from religious leaders."

And yet, we offer an arab-islamotrash state inside Israel on behalf of the Israelis and the world in return for these actions, all in the name of stamping out terrorists world-wide???

I personally won't believe that we, America, are ultimately taking the international war against terrorists seriously until we stamp out the PLO, it's terrorist state sponsors (Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan to name a few) and the networks operating in Israel against Americans, Israelis and westerners.

The arab-islamotrash don't simply want a state inside Israel, they want to push Israel into the sea, out of the M.E. and murder every Israeli-Jewish man, woman and child that they can.

This is evidenced by the offer that was turned down by arafart and his coalition from barak/xxxlinton as well as the fact that the only funding the PLO/coalition is to blow up Israelis.

[Ground0]

Oh-oh...an American Christian in Lebanon.

My God have mercy.

[twas]

Because Americans are "hot headed" and they would take it wrong. They may even moblize to combat the threat. Keeping Americans ignorant ensure that Americans won't become angry and take appropriate action.

After all, it's a proven fact that the US is a nation of racist, bigots, and hater so it's best not to let the average American know what's really going on and what real dangers they face.

[A_perfect_lady]

Christians go to the M.E. and help; islamotrash come to the west and use planes as cruise missiles.

Pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

[spycatcher]

may want to ping the usual suspects

[Long Cut]

There was a time in American history when such an event would have brought about invasion and occupation, along with execution of the perpetrators (and a few others, just to make sure). The message would have been that American lives are nothing to trifle with, lest you lose your country.

There are times that I wish, in my rage at these atrocities against my countrymen, that Theodore Roosevelt could come back and run things, if only for a year or two.

"Pericardis alive, or Raisiuli DEAD!!"

[RodgerD]

Her husband, a Brit, was quoted as saying, that as a Christian, as difficult as it was to do, he forgave his wife's murderer.

Can anyone imagine such a sentiment coming from the "Religion of Peace"?

[freeland]

She worked for the Christian Missionary Alliance, which runs a school and a health clinic and serves mainly Palestinians from the nearby Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp.

She wanted to help and they killed her for it.

Such are the ways of the religion of peace.

[EternalVigilance]

"Pericardis alive, or Raisiuli DEAD!!"

Been a long time since I heard that one!

How many here do you think know what you are referring to?

Same part of the world, same culture---we desperately need that exact same attitude to prevail in our leadership in the days ahead. It is ultimately the only one that they understand and respond to.

[ZeitgeistSurfer]

The questions that continue to plague me: When we will wake up? How many dead Americans will it take?

[dennisw]

Human life is frail and precious....except to the depraved.

[Long Cut]

It should be noted, that in that situation (the Pericardis kidnapping), that TR's brand of "negotiation" (with the entire Meditteranean Fleet and a Marine brigade off the coast, locked and loaded) produced results, cat-quick.

[Samurai_Jack]

If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the color of the evening sun
Tomorrows rain will wash those stains away
But something in our minds will always say

Perhaps this final act was meant, to clinch a lifetimes argument
that nothing comes from violence, and nothing ever could

For all those born beneath an angry star...
lest we forget how fragile we are...

On and on the rain will fall like tears from the stars, like tears from the stars...

On and on the rain will say how fragile we are, how fragile we are...

</sting>

[ApesForEvolution]

Yup. But, we'll reward them with a state inside of Israel anyway...insanity. Smart like a fox my arse.

[Samurai_Jack]

I shall spend some time with my son now.

[FreedomPoster]

Keyword bump.